Affordable Android phone

With a price tag as low as Rs 13,999 LG’s Optimus One is a good handset with a lot to offer

The Optimus One is a sleek handset. It is lightweight (129g) and comes neatly packaged inside a shell with a rubberised coating that makes it comfortable to hold. The 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen is responsive and sharp with its 320x480 pixel resolution.

DesignLG’s button placement is spot-on and makes for easy handling and control. A micro USB port is placed at the bottom while the 3.5mm audio connector is at the top near the power button. The Optimus accepts microSD.

The phone ships with Froyo out of the box. Running on a 600MHz processor, there’s no lag in the device. The virtual keypad is comfortable to use and you can switch from QWERTY to the numpad if you want. LG has added a few OS optimisations. You can create sections in the main menu to segregate apps. There’s a task killer app that helps relieve the battery from undue stress. Connectivity wise, there’s 3G, Wi-Fi, EDGE and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP. Along with GPS, the Optimus comes preinstalled with the NDrive app, replete with maps of India.

While the media player supports various formats, it can’t handle hi-def video. A few extras include FM radio, Aldiko’s Book Reader, voice search and Google’s speech to text feature. The 3-megapixel camera packs in face and smile detection, manual focus, scenes mode, a timer and geotagging.

With a price tag of Rs 13,999, this is a good handset with a lot to offer. The design is solid, it supports multiple video formats and LG’s thrown in a few handy apps as well. It’s a good choice if you’re looking for a cost-effective Android handset.